Hark! the voice of love and mercy

Hark! the voice of love and mercy. Jonathan Evans* (1748/49-1809).
First published anonymously in George Burder*'s A Collection of Hymns from Various Authors (Coventry, 1784). It was written in five 6-line stanzas. Stanza 4 has a direct reference to the Holy Communion, and is often omitted to give the hymn a more general application:
Happy souls, approach the table, Taste the soul-reviving food! Nothing half so sweet and pleasant As the Saviour’s flesh and blood. ‘It is finished!’ ‘It is finished!’ Christ hath borne the heavy load.
The dramatic force of this hymn, and the repeated use of ‘It is finished’, make this hymn eminently suitable for Passion-tide and Easter. It begins:
Hark!...

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